Huntsville City Schools closed Terry Heights Elementary in May 2009 and put the 17-acre campus up for sale. Children from the neighborhood now attend University Place Elementary. (Steve Doyle | sdoyle@al.com)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Could a land swap be brewing between Huntsville City Schools and the Huntsville Housing Authority?

Housing authority board members this week heard from a real estate consultant who said the Sparkman Homes public housing site on Holmes Avenue is a good fit for a future elementary school.

The consultant, Andrew Mazak of Columbus, Ohio-based Vogt Santer Insights, also said the shuttered Terry Heights Elementary campus 2/10 of a mile from Sparkman Homes would be ideal for new affordable housing.

Michael Lundy, the housing authority's executive director, said he's already spoken with Superintendent Casey Wardynski about possibly building a school at Sparkman Homes to replace University Place Elementary.

In October, the city school board voted to sell University Place to the University of Alabama in Huntsville for $4.7 million. UAH needs the 30-acre property to carry out a long-range campus expansion plan.

Wardynski "was very positive and thought (Sparkman Homes) would be a good location," Lundy said at Monday's housing authority Board of Commissioners meeting.

But he said the superintendent wants the school system's own consultant to review the Vogt Santer study, which examined the "highest and best use" of the Sparkman Homes and Terry Heights Elementary properties west of downtown.

The study said if a new elementary school is built, Sparkman Homes would be the better site because of its high visibility and easy access.

"Although elementary schools are sometimes placed off major thoroughfares to promote safety among students walking to school, in this case," the report says, "the visibility along Holmes Avenue will create awareness of the neighborhood revitalization and will help to promote the general redevelopment of the area."

The 17-acre Sparkman Homes property has some challenges, however. Housing authority board member Tami Jordan said she's not sure about putting an elementary school on land bordered by railroad tracks and a homeless camp.

Mazak said fencing and heavy landscaping could help keep children away from the tracks, while temporary housing might be available for the folks sleeping in tents beneath Interstate 565.

"That should be addressed whether we move forward with this or not," said Lundy.

Housing authority officials would like to redevelop Sparkman Homes as part of its ongoing mission to deconcentrate poverty in the city. If Sparkman Homes' 165 aging public housing units are razed, the Vogt Santer report says new affordable housing would work well on the Terry Heights campus.

The consulting firm says the 17-acre school property on Barbara Drive could support as many as 220 affordable apartments and 22 subsidized single-family homes.